So Fennel, Cardamom, and Peas Are Forbidden at Passover? OY!

Earlier this week, we in the BA web office were ready to start posting our Passover recipes when one Bon Appetit staffer brought up a possible problem–we had apparently broken all sorts of Kosher rules we didn’t even know existed. And it’s not like we had made recipes for Passover bacon-laced lobster rolls (which would break almost every rule on the books), but a few recipes did call for things like fennel, cumin, or (God, literally, forbid) mustard.

Even most of the bar and bat mitzvah’d on the staff claimed ignorance, so we decided to take a closer look at what’s up with Kosher for Passover. Most people know that any leavened dough, or anything made from the things with which one can make leavened dough, are strictly forbidden. This category of food is known as chametz. You can burn the stuff, give it away, sell it, or ritually disown it (if you plan far enough in advance), as long as it’s out of the house by Passover.

So, simple enough. Normal Kosher, plus no bread stuff. But wait! There’s another wrinkle to the Pesach prohibitions for many of the world’s Jews (specifically the Ashkenazi). You can’t eat fennel, peas, or poppy seeds. Also no lentils, corn, or cardamom. Rice? Out of the question. The mustard, similarly, does not cut itself. Anise, cumin, and saffron should be approached with caution, and, just to be on the safe side, avoid peanuts and quinoa.

This seemingly random collection of foodstuffs falls under the category of “Kitniyot,” which is Hebrew for “legumes.” This additional restriction comes from the idea that, more often than not, beans and peas and seeds and whatnot go through the same factories and processing facilities as the real chametz and therefore might carry tiny specks of the leaven-able stuff that could ruin the whole seder.

Because this is a specific branch of Passover practice, there is some debate about what qualifies as Kitniyot. Kashrut.com, which we trust because it calls itself “the premier kosher information source on the internet,” says that anise, dill, and coriander are all fine, but that you might as well poke around to make sure no stray bits of chametz snuck in. Things get especially thorny when metaphysics clashes with biology–musk, a common perfume ingredient, for example, may be considered Kitniyot as a “derivative of blood” in the body of the male musk deer, which begs the question of what, in any animal, could not be considered a “derivative of blood.”

As prickly as the Kitniyot category can be, though, its strictness has given even the gentile world a reason to look forward to Passover–that Kosher real-sugar Coca-Cola that comes to supermarket shelves this time of year only exists because corn is Kitniyot, and remains so even in its high fructose syrup form.